We are running a single page app that does not have the sencha cmd structure , but a custom one.
We don't have a .sencha folder with sencha.cfg ( I got the impression that it is not required when you do a custom build according to the guides). Running the command gives an error because of that.

As far as the guides explain it the folder is not necessary when applications with custom structure are being build since the 'sencha app build ' command will not work anyway.

Code:

'While the convenient commands like sencha app build won't understand these applications and
so cannot be used, you can use lower-level commands provided by Sencha Cmd to produce builds and
perform all of the same tasks'

Is there a solution to the problem without doing 'sencha app refresh' ?

We are running a single page app that does not have the sencha cmd structure , but a custom one.
We don't have a .sencha folder with sencha.cfg ( I got the impression that it is not required when you do a custom build according to the guides). Running the command gives an error because of that.
Is there a solution to the problem without doing 'sencha app refresh' ?

As I understood the cmd tool needs that folder, if you take a look in it then you can see app paths to framework and to app itself, so without it you can't run any cmds. As regarding what is written in your code tag I understand that they are saying about lower-level commands like sencha compile, which also needs sencha.cfg.

First quick solution could be to generate an app with your app's namespace, then copy/move app's files in to the new generated app and use it, in case you have custom structures, probably you can customize by changing/adjusting sencha cmd's files to your needs.

I've tried with app refresh but I got missing sencha cmd's files errors, so I ended up with above solution.

As I understood the cmd tool needs that folder, if you take a look in it then you can see app paths to framework and to app itself, so without it you can't run any cmds. As regarding what is written in your code tag I understand that they are saying about lower-level commands like sencha compile, which also needs sencha.cfg.

First quick solution could be to generate an app with your app's namespace, then copy/move app's files in to the new generated app and use it, in case you have custom structures, probably you can customize by changing/adjusting sencha cmd's files to your needs.

I've tried with app refresh but I got missing sencha cmd's files errors, so I ended up with above solution.

Thank you for the reply.
I was thinking about migrating the front-end structure to the 'new' Sencha standards but it seemed a lot of work for our app. After struggling for a couple of hours I came to the conclusion that there is no other way and it might even bring a lot of benefits in the long term - so I took your advice.

I just managed to produce a build of the app from the new structure and it worked like a charm.
I think that Sencha cmd will save us a lot of time in the deployment process.